which took place on the site of its present harbour. The same traveller ascertained the existence of porous lava at Damar, about 15° of N. latitude, and traced the same in various situations between that place and Mecca.

Similar appearances are exhibited about Medina, which is perhaps not more than 200 miles south of Sherm, where we have the authority of the accurate Burckhardt for the existence of volcanos.

Neither have we any reason to doubt the facts detailed by Seetzen, for Von Hoff, a writer, whom I have already had occasion to notice with approbation, assures us from personal knowledge, that this traveller was fully competent to render a correct account of the physical structure of the places he visited.

At Sherm, in the Peninsula of Mount Sinai, the hills for a distance of two miles presented, says Burckhardt, perpendicular cliffs, formed in half circles, none more than 60 or 80 feet in height; whilst in other places there was the appearance of volcanic craters. The rock, of which these mountains are composed, is black, with a slight tinge of red, full of cavities, and with a rough surface; fragments that had been detached from them were seen lying on the road. The cliffs were covered by deep layers of sand, which also overspread the vallies.

Burckhardt thinks it probable that other rocks of the same kind may be found near Ras Abou Mohammed, and that the name of Black Mountains (μɛñava ogn) applied to them by the Greeks, may have arisen from this cause.* It should be observed however, that low sand hills intervene between the volcanic rocks and the sea, and that above them towards the higher mountains no traces of lava are found, which circum. stance seems to prove that the volcanic matter is confined to this spot. Burckhardt adds, in a letter to the Association,†

that the Arabs, as well as the priests of the convent, mention, that loud explosions are sometimes heard, accompanied with smoke, proceeding from a mountain called Om Shommar, eight hours S. S. W. of Djebel Mousa, where however he searched in vain for any traces of the kind.

Humboldt observes, that he is satisfied from the nu merous specimens which have fallen under his observation, that the rock from which these volcanos have proceeded, iş a transition porphyry, like that of Mexico.

If we proceed northwards from this Peninsula to Palestine, we shall meet with abundant evidences of igneous action to corroborate the accounts that have been handed down to us by antient writers, whether sacred and profane, from both which it might be inferred, that volcanos were in activity, at a period even so late as to be included within the limits of history.

From their familiarity with such phænomena, the Prophets seem often to have derived some of their most splendid imagery. Thus Nahum, describing the majesty of God, says, that, the mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and that the earth is burned at his presence. His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him, (Nah, i. 5. 6.)

Behold, says Micah, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the vallies shall be cleft as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. (Mic. i. 3. 4.)

O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, says Isaiah, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things which we looked

DEAD SEA.

not for, thou comest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. (Isaiah, lxiv. 1. 3.)

And Jeremiah, evidently alluding to a volcano, says→→→ Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth, and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever. (Jer. li. 25. 26.) The destruction of the five cities on the borders of the Lake Asphaltitis or Dead Sea, can be attributed, I conceive, to nothing else than a volcanic eruption, judging both from the description given by Moses of the manner in which it took place,* and from the present aspect of the country itself.

I presume it is unnecessary to urge, that the reason assigned in Holy Writ for the destruction of the cities alluded to, does not exclude the operation of natural causes in bringing it about, and that there can be no greater impro priety in supposing a volcano to have executed the will of the Deity against the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, than it would be to imagine, if such an idea were on other grounds admissible, that the sea might have been the instrument in the hands of the same Being for effecting the general destruction of the human race in the case of the Deluge.

The following are the words of Scripture:

Gen. Ch. xix.

Vs. 24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven.

25. And he overthrew these cities, and all the plain, and all the in habitants of these cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 26. And he (Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of the furnace.

In Deut. ch. 29, vs. 23, the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea is described as a country, the land of which is brimstone, and salt, and burning, which is not sown nor beareth, nor has any grass growing therein.

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Whether indeed we chuse to suppose the fire which laid waste these places, to have originated from above or from below, the employment of secondary causes seems equally implied; and if it be urged, that the words of Genesis denote that it proceeded from the former quarter, it may, I think, be replied, that a volcanic eruption seen from a distance might be naturally mistaken for a shower of stones, and that we cannot expect from the sacred historian in the case before us, any greater insight into the real nature of such phænomena, than we attribute to him in the analogous instance, in which the Sun is said to have stood still at the command of Joshua.

That the individuals who witnessed the destruction of these places might have been impressed with this notion, will be more readily believed, when we reflect, that in most eruptions the greater part of the mischief occasioned proceeds from the matters ejected, which are often perceived only to fall from above; and those who recollect the description given by the younger Pliny of that from Vesuvius, will admit, that a person who had fled from the neighbourhood of that volcano, as Lot is stated to have done from the one near the Dead Sea, at the commencement of the eruption, would probably have formed the same idea of what was taking place; for it appears from the Roman writer, that it was long before he was enabled, even at Misenum, to determine in the midst of the general obscurity, that the cloud of unusual appearance, which was the precursor of the volcanic phænomena, proceeded from the mountain itself.

When Livy mentions the shower of stones, which, according to common report, fell from heaven on Mount Albano,* there can be little doubt, that the phænomenon that gave rise to such an idea was of an analogous description, and we shall see hereafter, that the volcanic action, of which there are such decided evidences in Phrygia, was attributed * See page 130.

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by some to heavenly meteors: "EIKAČOVI TIVES," says Strabo, εκ κεραυνοβολιών και πρηςήρων συμβηναι τετο.”

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As therefore we have no authority for supposing Moses a natural historian, or for imagining that he possessed a knowledge of physics beyond that of the age in which he lived, we may venture to apply to his narrative of the destruction of these cities the same remark, which Strabo has made respecting the indications of igneous action presented by the country round Laodicea.66 ουκ ευλογον υπο τοιςτων παθών την τοιαύτην χώραν εκπρησθηναι αθρόως, αλλα μαλλον υπο γηγενές πυρος.”

Volney's description of the present state of this country, fully coincides with this view.*

The south of Syria, (he remarks) that is, the hollow through which the Jordan flows, is a country of volcanos: the bituminous and sulphureous sources of the lake Asphaltitis, the lava, the pumice-stones thrown upon its banks, and the hot-baths of Tabaria, demonstrate, that this valley has been the seat of a subterraneous fire, which is not yet extinguished.

Clouds of smoke are often observed to issue from the lake, and new crevices to be formed upon its banks. If conjec tures in such cases were not too liable to error, we might suspect, that the whole valley has been formed only by a violent sinking of a country which formerly poured the Jordan into the Mediterranean. It appears certain, at least, that the catastrophe of five cities destroyed by fire, must have been occasioned by the eruption of a volcano then burning. Strabo expressly says, "that the tradition of the inhabitants of the country (that is of the Jews themselves) was, that formerly the valley of the Lake was peopled by thirteen flourishing cities, and that they were swallowed

* Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i. p. 281, 282. See likewise in the commencement of the new novel of the Talisman, a very picturesque and appa rently exact description of the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea.